
There are few horror writers as influential within the early 20th century as H.P. Lovecraft.  No other author has made such a large impact on the genre. Despite dying in poverty and less acclaim than Vincent Van Gogh in the artist's final years, Lovecraft like Van Gogh was able to make a extraordinary posthumous comeback. Although he began in obscurity, after death he has risen to the point of dominating the horror genre. Many horror writers, even those who only started writing in the 21st century, are influenced by his ideas.  A glaring mark on Lovecraft's legacy, however, is his staunch racism which comes across very strongly in almost all of his works. Given Lovecraft's modern pop culture fame and undoubtful influence upon horror writing the question for the creators who were inspired by Lovecraft becomes how to respond to his racism, if at all. 

H.P. Lovecraft was undeniably one of the most blatantly racist authors within the 20th Century despite only writing stories published from 1916 until his death in 1937. Not alone in holding racist views, many of the authors of the 20th century were racist. For example,  Roald Dahl, one of the most beloved children's authors of all time, held racist views at the beginning of his career. In fact, characters in his book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas, are described as black pygmies. 

What is racism though?  "Racist" and "racism" can mean very different things depending on who is doing the defining. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary claims they define words by how people use them both in common vernacular and educated tongue. In short "to decide which words to include in the dictionary and to determine what they mean, Merriam-Webster editors study the language as it's used. They carefully monitor which words people use most often and how they use them."(Merriam Webster FAQ). It is questionable whether Merriam-Webster is the final determining authority on what a word means however given languages' tendency to change over time. However, the definition of racism has not changed even in common vernacular since 1933 which is when Merriam-Webster dates the first use of the word. The dictionary definition of racism according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race" or "racial prejudice or discrimination". (Merriam Webster Racism entry). When defining racism as such it becomes abundantly clear that H.P. Lovecraft is as racist as the average Ku Klux Klan Grand Magi. 

The majority of the evidence for Lovecraft's racism lies in his own words. He used his works to expound upon his beliefs to the world at large even if he was merely writing in the pulp magazines. One of the more egregious examples of Lovecraft racism is in one of his more seminal works "Herbert West-Reanimator". In the chapter, 'Six Shots by Midnight', the narrator and Herbert West are attempting to reanimate the dead through chemistry. They hear of a boxing match gone wrong and rush to the scene to obtain the cadaver to experiment on. The man who died  was Buck Robinson, otherwise known as the Harlem Smoke. Robinson being black could not escape Lovecraft's ire being described as "  ...  a loathsome, gorilla like thing, with abnormally long arms which I could not help calling fore legs, and a face that conjured up thoughts of unspeakable Congo secrets and tom-tom poundings under a eerie moon". (Lovecraft,341) While it seems as if that one sentence was a proverbial buckshot of racial slurs and insults, picking apart the terms that Lovecraft uses in describing Robinson gives insight into just how racist Lovecraft really was. The first words out of the gate describing Robinson was an insult quickly followed by a racial slur where Robinson is specifically called a gorilla: a term traditionally used as a slur against Africans and those of African descent. That term implies that they are less human than the supposedly "pure" white race. Lovecraft goes further describing Robinson's ape like traits further drilling his racist point across. Lovecraft then ascribes that his face had an air of voodoo describing it as "Congo Secrets", illustrating further negative connotations about Robinson's race.

Most of the authors who were influenced by Lovecraft disregard his racism. Even though they are directly influenced by his style of writing they do not comment or draw inspiration from Lovecraft's racism. Many of the authors who are influenced by Lovecraft's particular brand of horror fall into the camp where they disregard Lovecraft's racism. It is the absence of racism in their work that reveals their rejection of Lovecraft's views. Steven King is the most famous of this camp as he is undeniably influenced by Lovecraft. In an interview with Goodreads, when asked about his inspiration, King replied,  "There are so many! Lord of the Flies (Golding), The Collector (Fowles), The Postman Always Rings Twice (Cain), Blood Meridian (McCarthy), John D. MacDonald (everything), Watchers (Koontz), One on One (King), The Poet (Connelly), H.P. Lovecraft (everything), The Great God Pan (Machen)" (King, 2014). Stephen King name dropped everything written by Lovecraft, so it is clear that Lovecraft is a huge influence on King. The King bibliography also reflects this with many of King's themes being taken from Lovecraft. For example, King's works are infamous for often taking place in rural Maine or likewise in the rural New England. Likewise all of Lovecraft's stories that took place in America were located in rural New England.  King's "It", in particular,  revels in Lovecraftian horror. King despite being clearly inspired by Lovecraft does not either reject the racism indicative of Lovecraft's works nor does he comment on it as a major theme leaving him as a definitely member of the first camp of authors.

Some authors though, particularly younger authors, are more likely, if they are influenced by Lovecraft's racism at all, to respond directly against Lovecraft. They do so by including more diversity in their worlds and characters. One of the most prominent examples of creators rejecting Lovecraft's worldview is the podcast "Welcome to Night Vale". "Welcome to Night Vale" is styled after an old fashioned radio show in the town of Night Vale which is "a friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep."(Welcome To Night Vale, pilot). The town of Night Vale is also small desert town where according to Joseph Fink alongside Jeffrey Cranor, the creators of the show , "where every conspiracy theory is true." (Fink, 2013). Not limited to a World Government, the Sheriff commands a secret police, and the local city council wields nearly unlimited power while speaking as a "hivemind". Night Vale is also a town deeply immersed in Lovecraftian horrors. Through all the weird happenings of the town, including all of the wheat and wheat byproducts turning into snakes, a glowing sentient cloud possessing the town's people's minds, angelic figures who legally cannot be acknowledged to exist by anyone, the unimaginably terrifying station management and a massive corporation bent on subjugating the entire town to  their impossibly bright Smiling God the Night Vale citizens act as if this is just another day and go about their daily business. Fink and Cranor, the authors of the Podcast scripts, turn Lovecraft's central notion of the unknown being incomprehensible and so outside daily life that they could not be interacted with by the characters, and morphed it into the characters treating the horror and weirdness that happens around them as a mundane fact of life. "Welcome to Night Vale" also flips Lovecraft's politics on its head by including an intentionally diverse cast of characters. 

Despite Fink and Cranor keeping character descriptions to a minimum, the audience can infer the race of characters either from the fleeting descriptions they are given or their names which give away racial roots. The side characters, Nazr al-Mujaheed the little league coach and Michelle Nguyen owner of Dark Owl Records, are most likely Arabic and Asian respectively. Beyond characters that fall outside being white, the city of Night Vale is also home to many non-human characters. Sarah Sultan for instance is a smooth fist sized river rock who is also president of the Night Vale Community College. Hiram McDaniels is literally a five headed dragon, while the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home speaks for herself (in spite of being faceless). Fink and Cranor have even managed to address transgender issues within the story by having Megan Wallaby born as an Adult man's hand being attached to a Russian Sailor's body and taking over his mind when the sailor turns up in Night Vale in a sealed submarine during the episode "The Deft Bowman". Even after Megan is attached to the Russian Sailor's hand, Cecil (the narrator) still addresses her as Megan and as female as that's how she wants to be gendered. The main character of the story Cecil Palmer who is also the narrator for the audience is also a part of the diversity of Night Vale as he about as gay as the Stonewall inn along with his Boyfriend Carlos whos is both Latino and Gay.  Fink and Cranor have rarely been explicit in their disregard for racism. In the beginning leg of the show introducing the Apache Tracker who Cecil describes as "He's the one that appears to be of maybe Slavic origin, yet wears an Indian headdress out of some racist cartoon and claims to be able to read tracks on asphalt. He appeared on the scene, and swore that he would discover the truth." (Fink, Pilot). Cecil, in following episodes, continues his criticism of the Tracker  as a racist embarrassment to the town even when he returns to the town after an absence resembling an actual Native American and only speaking Russian. Even after he died protecting the town from a tiny underground civilization, they still regard him as a racist embarrassment. This is seen when the town council builds a statue to him to honor his sacrifice then " the monument itself will be buried in the desert where no one will find it  --  because he was also a racist embarrassment and we don't want our town associated with that kind of thing"(Fink, First Date) The description and treatment of the Apache Tracker by the town send clear signals that the town is extremely tolerant of the diversity within the town. Even the antagonists of the show are not deemed villainous primarily due to race as Lovecraft would write. Instead characters like the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your House and Hiram McDaniels are treated as villains for repeated assassination attempts on the sitting mayor of Night Vale.

H.P. Lovecraft greatly influenced the development of the horror genre of fiction in America.  It is well known and acknowledged by many in Academia and by the wide majority of his readership that he was very racist. While this mindset affected his legacy, many authors who write stories influenced by Lovecraft's brand of horror, disregard the racist part of Lovecraft's legacy and instead focus on the tropes he used as a Horror writer. Other writers, however, comment on the racial tones Lovecraft took most commonly rejecting them. 


